Every year, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) releases a hit list of the best robots the country has produced and gives their makers an award. And yesterday, the METI announced who will get the Robot Awards in 2010 [JP]. What follows is a list of all the robots that made the list.
Grand Prize
Toyota’s eco-friendly 80W industrial robot, which places spare tires in trunks
Runners-up
Pork ham deboning machine HAMDAS-R
Panasonic’s new range of health care robots
Power line exploration robot Expliner
Robotic arm Kibo (used in outer space)
Best service and industrial robots
Cell cultivation robot from Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Strawberry harvesting robot
Fanuc’s 3-axis parallel link industrial robot with six joints
Mitsubishi’s emergency robot FRIGO-M
Joystick-controlled robot system for mobile vehicles
Here is our Robot Awards coverage from 2008 (there were no robot awards in 2009).